A Journey to Health: Going backward to get ahead

We are knee deep in 2014, so that means a step up in our journey to the healthy lifestyle right?

Kind of.

MIKE >> Over the past two weeks, Shannon and I have both seen a physical therapist to see what we can be doing to prevent the injuries that we have been having.

If you have followed the blog recently, you know that we have both been battling injuries. It had gotten to the point where I was not looking forward to going to the "Box" because each team I left, the next day or two I would be in immense pain. So on Wednesday I went and spoke with a physical therapist. After running a series of tests that measured my flexibility and balance, the therapist said I had a bad sacroiliac joint and sciatic nerve trouble. "Bad" and "trouble" were not the exact terms that he used, but once it started getting technical, I was lost.

The remedy: taking a month or two off of Crossfit and spending that time doing rehab.

Please let me make this clear, in no way, shape or form am I saying that Crossfit caused these injuries, because I do not believe they did, nor has anyone told me they did. I do believe that flexibility and core strength played a huge role in it, two things that I severely lack.

After hearing the news that I will have to take time off, I was a little disheartened, but then realized that if I maximize this rehab opportunity I could enable myself to come back stronger than I ever was.

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In terms of the eating aspect of it, 2014 has started off strong. I have made sure to eat a hearty breakfast everyday. I have been snacking healthy and eating much better meals. In terms of drinking, I have been drinking eight glasses of water a day and only had Coke on the one cheat day a week I get. After the first week of doing this, I lost 2.7 pounds. Man that felt awesome getting on the scale and seeing that.

So here is to hoping rehabbing my shoulder (I tore my labrum in 2003 and had surgery and it never recovered properly so they think this is affected things, as well) and back go well and in a month or two I will be making my way back to the box and sticking around for the long haul!

SHANNON: You know how it is when you start a new endeavor with the best intentions, and then along the way, life throws you some curve balls and you find yourself scratching your head thinking, "Well, that's not what I thought was going to happen" ? I would say that pretty much describes what is happening right now on my journey.

Recently I have been having some issues with my knees. More specifically, some serious pain when I would go from a sitting or squatting position to standing up. At first I attributed it to typical workout soreness, but after about a month and a half of no relief, I decided I would mention something to our coach. He had me go over to SPORT Center Rehabilitation where they did a Functional Movement Screen.

Basically from this assessment, I learned that my hips and core are not strong enough to support the exercises that I am doing, which puts too much stress on my knees.

Everything that the physical therapist explained made sense, but when he said something about having to start over, I tuned everything else out that he had to say.

Start over? After all this time and all the progress that I had been making in other areas? Start over?

So my prescription for now is mobility, mobility, mobility, core strengthening and most likely a dose of physical therapy for a month to get back on track.